Arthur Goldstein—MORE—I am flattered that the 95 of you are so confounded by the seven of us that you need to curtail the few privileges we enjoy. I regret you are unable to muster persuasive responses when we raise resolutions. We are prohibited from electing our own Vice President, and this is just one more example of anti-democracy. Resolutions are regularly handed out on the spot at the DA and there are far fewer people here. This is not the way to go in the age of Janus. ..... NYC Educator responding to Unity Caucus reso
UFT Executive Board September 26, 2017--We Support Adult Ed., Maternity Leave, Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas. Overcrowding? Class Sizes? Democracy? Meh. -
RESOLVED, that all ad hoc resolutions for consideration by the UFT Executive Board not listed on the printed agenda for the day's meeting will be published and available on the agenda table at least one-half hour prior to commencement of the meeting, except for resolutions where circumstances arise within hours before or during the meeting that would require immediate discussion and action.... Reso passed with unanimous Unity Caucus support at Sept. 25 Ex Bd meeting.
......Unity reso presented at UFT Ex Bd meeting, Sept. 25, reso opposed by MORE reps.
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| Unity Caucus on the move |
but there's no way to properly describe some of the goings on there --- it is worth the price of admission. I will get to the adult ed and parental leave issues in a follow-up. Arthur and James did prelim reports on the meeting here and here.
But the reso put forth by Unity last night was so hilarious I can't pass up a separate post about it.
Many Unity people at EB meetings come off as hacks
Let me explain what this is all about. Since MORE got elected last year, our reps have used the EB meetings to raise resos -- sometimes they send them to the leadership in advance, sometimes they don't --- often last minute ideas come up and people sign the resos at the pre-meeting. When they raise the ad hoc resos it is a given that Leroy Barr - since so few in Unity are capable of even mustering a valid argument - will speak against it or amend it - and the rest of the Unity crew will vote the way they are told.
So the fact that they are calling in this reso for us to have our resos on the table a half hour before the meeting -- ie. 5:30 - when no one is there -- most don't come until 6 anyway -- is a joke. What they want is to give Leroy more of a heads up to prep his opposition - or to prep someone else to oppose it with at least a rational argument of some sort.
I often comment as our people are making their reso that we should give Leroy a chance to speak against it BEFORE we bring up a reso. In fact how about this alt to the Unity reso:
RESOLVED, we will oppose any reso coming from MORE. I mean why do they need time to come up with reasons? Just say you oppose and the Unity hacks will vote against since they don't need no stink'n reason.
Jonathan Halabi and New Action's approach to this reso was that they could live with this as long as Unity followed their own rules by not springing memorandums of agreement, etc on us in the future. I still feel New Action compromises too much.
Other than Arthur Goldstein, no one in MORE/NA called out Unity about the real purpose of this reso -- and what it exposes --
- that they will vote against a MORE/NA reso unless they are told to vote for it
- that they can't think on their feet fast enough to respond and are embarrassed time and again when we report their response.
Here are some other reports on the meeting. More to come from me later.
UFT Executive Board September 26, 2017--We Support Adult Ed., Maternity Leave, Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas. Overcrowding? Class Sizes? Democracy? Meh. -
MULGREW SHOWS UP FOR OPEN MIC TO HEAR PAID FAMILY LEAVE PETITION PRESENTED AT EXEC BD - Michael Mulgrew, the UFT President who almost never shows up to hear members under attack pleading their cases at the open mic before Executive Board meeti...
Whether we present a resolution directly at the meeting or half an hour before will, in practice, make no difference.
ReplyDeleteBut Unity has called for votes on Memoranda that they haven't distributed, or distribute at the time of the discussion/vote. This happens at the most important juncture - contract votes, MoA, new and tricky agreements. They want things approved fast, to make them easier to sell, and quick approval often requires no questions, which often requires little or no foreknowledge.
I still voted no, and I would again. But as long as they were rammed this through, let's refer to it the next time they try a snap vote on a major, undiscussed item.
I disagreed with the tone and tenor of your argument. I much preferred Arthur's tone. These people need to be beaten over their heads esp on an issue like this. Call a spade a spade for what they really are about. Hacism first class.
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